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The
negotiations
I skipped the offered lunch
but attended a meeting with Mr. Mepsted, the Chief
Commercial Manager who had the largest office I
have been in before or since. It included a full
length conference table which was ideal for
displaying large drawings. Also attending the
meeting was Mr. Eckett the Publicity Officer who I
was to meet with many times in the succeeding
months. By chance my timing couldn't have been
better as BR(SR) had been drafting a similar map
but had not reached a conclusion with it. To their
credit I never detected misgivings at having a
freelancer coming up with an acceptable solution.
Right from the start of the negotiations it was
clear to me that Mr. Mepsted was prepared to buy my
map, however I was eager to continue with it
through it's development and the many changes I
knew there would be, rather than hand it over at
this stage and after awhile they agreed to let me
do this. I was interested in seeing the map appear
in the carriages and I believed if I stayed with it
it had a better chance of eventually
happening.
There were changes made in
the extent of the map. Originally the line to
Reading South had not been included and in the east
the line to Allhallows-on-Sea had been shown. I had
originally included several rush-hour specials
routes on the map but BR asked for these to be
removed so that it would apply to the regular
middle of the day services. Also there was much
discussion in the design of the station symbol and
treatment of interchange stations and I seem to
remember preparing and showing a number of options.
BR typeset a complete list of station names so that
I could cut these out and paste them on the twice
size drawing in the most appropriate
position.
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